Critics, the media and a slew of negative books have ripped President Trump’s brash style, but one insider who has known the former real estate magnate for over 28 years, the longest of any aide, calls it the key to a string of successes in trade, foreign policy and domestic affairs.
“It’s a process that some people wrongly think is very messy, crude, clumsy, but guess what? It’s starting to bring results,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
“I think the Trump administration maybe beyond all others is one where you shouldn’t judge by methodology, you should judge by results because it is an unorthodox methodology but frankly it weren’t for this unusual methodology we wouldn’t be solving any of these problems,” he told Secrets.
While many in Washington, even among his team, sometimes shake their heads over Trump’s tactics because they don’t conform with the capital’s button-down style, old Trump hands stand back and watch it work.
“What a lot of people think of as rash behavior on his part is really intuitive behavior. He gets to the core of things intuitively a lot faster than most people get there through a conventional thought process,” said Ross over coffee in his home last week.
More than many past Commerce secretaries, Ross has been in on a number of Trump moves, most notably trade and expanding employment, often working with the president’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
And he’s just one Cabinet secretary. Others also say that they are under pressure to produce results to add to the notable 81 “achievements” the White House touted at the beginning of the year.
Juggling so many balls is typical for Trump, said Ross, who first met the president in an adversarial bankruptcy fight over the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. in 1990.
“Some people argue, I think incorrectly, that he is trying to do too much all at one time. It is a lot. It’s more than any administration has taken on. But if you really believe that there are a lot of things that need changing and if you are really determined to be a big agent for change you might as well go for it,” said Ross.
Trade is a key example, he explained. In tandem with the U.S. Trade Representative and others, Ross has helped Trump to level punishing tariffs on Europe, Canada, China and Russia and rewritten the Clinton-era NAFTA.
While payoffs are starting to be delivered, Washington-based free trade advocates fear a lengthy battle that could hurt farmers, American industries and consumers.
But in a recent trip to Fargo, N.D., Ross said he heard many voices of support from business and agricultural leaders who feel the U.S. has been taken advantage of for decades and appreciate Trump’s aggressive push back.
“They’re real patriots, these guys, they get it. They understand that there is going to be a tough period here,” said Ross. “So as long as they keep confidence that the president is going to get there and get them better market access they are willing to put up with quite a little bit.”
Ross’ faith in Trump goes back to that 1990 bankruptcy fight when he was battling for Taj Mahal investors like Carl Icahn with Trump who hadn’t paid a cent of interest on bond notes.
“He was tenacious … he and I were quite publicly adversarial. But he handled himself properly,” said Ross. What’s more, “he delivered on what he said he would” to seal the deal and open what became a long friendship between former antagonists Ross and Icahn.
“It’s interesting that we both dealt with him under about the most adverse circumstances you could imagine and yet we both came out with respect sufficient that years later we backed him in his presidential run. That’s a rare event. There are very few people that I’ve ever met on the other side of a bankruptcy that you would back for anything, let alone the presidency,” said Ross.
